Vitals is an online resource for patients to find doctors and medical facilities by comparing their cost and quality. The site focuses on doctors, dentists, psychologists, urgent care centers, group practices and hospitals. Vitals claims to collect over 1.4 billion points of data on doctors, including patient reviews. It differentiates itself by remaining free for both consumers and doctors to use.
Originally launched in 2008, Vitals has grown to be the 13th largest health website according to comScore, and peaked as the 362nd most visited website in the United States. In addition to being a health provider and medical facility search service, the site provides content on preparing for a doctor visit and has scheduling tools for patients to book appointments with doctors online.
Video Vitals (website)
History
Vitals was co-founded in 2007 by Mitch Rothschild, Todd Rosengart and Richard Forman. Rothschild claims the idea was born out of personally experiencing the complexity of finding a qualified physician for a surgery on his knee.
Vitals has raised investment capital from Health Venture Group, Milestone Venture Partners, Greycroft Partners, Cross Atlantic Partners, Cardinal Partners and Health Venture Group HEA and Athena, and Health Enterprise Partners. On June 18, 2013, Vitals closed $22 million in Series C funding. Investors participating in the round were Piper Jaffray, Cardinal Partners, Health Enterprise Partners, Milestone Ventures Partners and Greycroft Partners. Funding will be used to expand the Vitals consumer footprint and includes better data, more tools, helping consumers know the cost of their healthcare and developing decision-support tools for health insurance choice.
According to the company's press releases, Vitals was awarded a Red Herring Top 100 award and a Build 100 award in 2014. Kiplinger Magazine named Vitals the Best Health Review Site in 2011. CNN's Money Magazine named the company the best doctor site in February 2010 and Forbes called Vitals one of the "Five Health Shopping Web Sites Worth Watching" in June, 2010.
Maps Vitals (website)
Business Model
Revenues for Vitals are generated by ad sales and by selling direct services to physicians, health care facilities and insurances.
Criticism
Vitals has been criticized along with other doctor-review sites for allowing reviews to be posted about doctors anonymously, with the complete inability of providers to respond due to patient privacy laws. Vitals claims that reviews submitted by users are systemically screened for defamatory or inflammatory remarks; however, again, due to privacy, laws, there is no way to verify information contained on the website. They claim to have a Physician Relations team that investigates suspicious reviews.
References
External links
- Vitals
- Vitals Spotlight Blog
Similar sites
- Doximity
- Healthgrades
- Ratemds.com
- WebMD
Source of article : Wikipedia
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